Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden told a crowd at the State Fair today that his son’s National Guard unit has been notified it will be deployed to Iraq in 2008.
"I don’t want him going. I don’t want him going, but I tell you what — I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference," Biden said.
Two other presidential candidates — Republicans John McCain and Duncan Hunter — have sons who’ve been in military units deployed to Iraq.
Biden’s 38-year-old son, Beau, is a Judge Advocate General in the Delaware National Guard, which means he’s a military lawyer. Beau Biden is currently the Attorney General of Delaware.
During his State Fair speech, the elder Biden was critical of his Democratic rivals who have voted against providing money to the troops in the field as a means of trying to get President Bush to change course in Iraq.
"There’s no political point worth my son’s life," Biden said, drawing applause from the crowd of fairgoers. "There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None."
Biden will speak later this afternoon in Waterloo at the Iowa Federation of Labor convention, as will four other Democratic candidates.